Aliaksei Kazlou and Karl Wennberg
Economic integration of refugees remains a challenge for developed countries. Although refugees differ greatly from labor migrants in available resources and motivation toward…
Abstract
Purpose
Economic integration of refugees remains a challenge for developed countries. Although refugees differ greatly from labor migrants in available resources and motivation toward self-employment, prevailing studies on minority and ethnic entrepreneurship tend to lump these different categories of migrants together. Based on theories of migrants’ economic embeddedness, the purpose of this paper is to analyze the extent to which family- and kinship-based resources affect self-employment duration among refugees and labor migrants.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on Cox regression models, this longitudinal study estimates the self-employment duration of 10,519 refugees and 2,503 labor migrants starting businesses in Sweden in the period 2006–2012.
Findings
Results reveal that while refugees are at a disadvantage to labor migrants in terms of self-employment duration, their higher level of family embeddedness in part helps them overcome these disadvantages. For refugees but not for labor migrants, co-location in an ethnic enclave also lowers the risk of them becoming unemployed after a spell in entrepreneurship.
Originality/value
This original paper provides empirical and theoretical contributions to research on migrants’ self-employment success. It also discusses contributions for research on entrepreneurs’ social embeddedness and refugees’ entrepreneurship.
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Keywords
This article provides an account of how databases can be effectively used in entrepreneurship research. Improved quality and access to large secondary databases offer paths to…
Abstract
This article provides an account of how databases can be effectively used in entrepreneurship research. Improved quality and access to large secondary databases offer paths to answer questions of great theoretical value. I present an overview of theoretical, methodological, and practical difficulties in working with database data, together with advice on how such difficulties can be overcome. Conclusions are given, together with suggestions of areas where databases might provide real and important contributions to entrepreneurship research.
Karin Hellerstedt, Karl Wennberg and Lars Frederiksen
This chapter investigates how regional start-up rates in the knowledge-intensive services and high-tech industries are influenced by knowledge spillovers from both universities…
Abstract
This chapter investigates how regional start-up rates in the knowledge-intensive services and high-tech industries are influenced by knowledge spillovers from both universities and firm-based R&D activities. Integrating insights from economic geography and organizational ecology into the literature on entrepreneurship, we develop a theoretical framework which captures how both supply- and demand-side factors mold the regional bedrock for start-ups in knowledge-intensive industries. Using multilevel data of all knowledge-intensive start-ups across 286 Swedish municipalities between 1994 and 2002 we demonstrate how characteristics of the economic and political milieu within each region influence the ratio of firm births. We find that knowledge spillovers from universities and firm-based R&D strongly affect the start-up rates for both high-tech firms and knowledge-intensive services firms. Further, the start-up rate of knowledge-intensive service firms is tied more strongly to the supply of university educated individuals and the political regulatory regime within the municipality than start-ups in high-tech industries. This suggests that knowledge-intensive service-start-ups are more susceptible to both demand-side and supply-side context than is the case for high-tech start-ups in general. Our study contributes to the growing stream of research that explains entrepreneurial activity as shaped by contextual factors, most notably academic institutions, such as universities that contribute to knowledge-intensive start-ups.
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Daniel Yar Hamidi, Karl Wennberg and Henrik Berglund
The purpose of this paper is to use social cognitive theory to investigate entrepreneurial intent among participants in graduate entrepreneurship programs. Specifically, the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to use social cognitive theory to investigate entrepreneurial intent among participants in graduate entrepreneurship programs. Specifically, the authors test whether students' creative potential is related to their intention to engage in entrepreneurship.
Design/methodology/approach
Theoretically derived hypotheses are tested using multiple and ordinal regression analyses.
Findings
High scores on a creativity test and prior entrepreneurial experiences are positively associated with entrepreneurial intentions, whereas perception of risks has a negative influence.
Research limitations/implications
The authors' theoretical predictors of entrepreneurial intention received strong support, indicating that creativity should be considered in models of entrepreneurial intentions. However, the use of intentions as dependent variable has its own weaknesses in that it may not distinguish between “dreamers” and “doers”.
Practical implications
The findings indicate that exercises in creativity can be used to raise the entrepreneurial intentions of students in entrepreneurship education. Heterogeneity in creative styles among students also points to the problems of a “one‐size‐fits‐all” approach to entrepreneurship education.
Originality/value
The paper is the first to investigate the importance of creativity in entrepreneurship education and theoretical models of entrepreneurial intentions.
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Karl Wennberg and Henrik Berglund
This chapter takes a closer look at how social networks can affect the early development of new ventures. The dynamic role of social networks is discussed and exemplified by two…
Abstract
This chapter takes a closer look at how social networks can affect the early development of new ventures. The dynamic role of social networks is discussed and exemplified by two longitudinal cases that illustrate the radically different ways in which social networks can influence venture development. These differences relate to social or individual ownership of the innovation process, to risks or opportunities as the focus of attention, and to the creative relationship between networking and financial bootstrapping techniques.
Michael Beyerlein, Frances Kennedy and Susan Beyerlein
Sternberg & Lubart (1991); Sternberg & Lubart (1992).
Elizabeth H. Bradley and Carlos Alamo-Pastrana
The chapter summarizes key literature, including emerging ideas, that is pertinent to the question of how organizations and their leadership deal with and are resilient through…
Abstract
The chapter summarizes key literature, including emerging ideas, that is pertinent to the question of how organizations and their leadership deal with and are resilient through crises – highlighting what works in surviving unexpected crises. The chapter presents an illustration of organizational response; it concludes with an analysis of what is missing from the literature and recommends a path forward to expanding actionable knowledge in this area. Multiple, interdependent factors that foster resilience are identified including (1) being sensitive to possible threats – even seemingly small failures, (2) not relying on simple interpretations of events but rather seeking diversity to create a complete view of the environment, (3) leadership that embraces communication, transparency, and continuous learning, (4) valuing expertise and allowing expert staff to make decisions during a crisis, and (5) a cultural commitment to a resiliency mindset that accepts failures as opportunities to learn and improve. Emerging concepts that may foster resilience but require more research include managing paradox, emotional ambivalence and diversity. Additional areas for fruitful research include: the impact of short-term versus long-term, or successive, crises; external versus internal shocks and the framing of the source of shocks; how crisis affect the pace of innovation and change; the role of diversity in organizational responses to crises; and a set of methodological opportunities to leverage natural experiments or simulations in ways that allow for longitudinal data illuminating the full cycle of crises across organizations from anticipation, to response, to longer-term adaptation to the new normal.